Walt Husak died late in the afternoon of Thursday, December 15, 2022. Within hours, his friendAl Boka sent out a notification to other friends and fellow collectors around the country. Soontributes were coming in from many of them.

Walter Joseph Husak was born in Chicago on May 27, 1942. His parents were Walter and JuneBlake Husak. At the time of the 1950 Census, they were living in Los Angeles with the fatherlisted as a salesman for a sign company and the mother as a waitress in a restaurant. Later in the 1950's, Walter was a teller at the Merchants National Bank in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Walt began collecting Lincoln cents and Buffalo nickels when he was twelve. While on a visit tohis grandparents' Iowa farm, he was given a few old coins for doing chores.

A boy's coin collection may not survive when his interest turns to girls or cars. Walt got marriedand had a child. His collection was sold so he could buy a 1957 Triumph sports car. Nine monthslater in 1963, with his second child expected, he sold the Triumph to buy a more practical familycar, a 1954 Cadillac convertible.

Walt's first marriage to Irene Catherine Ferris produced a son, Wally, and daughter, Trina, andended in divorce in 1967. With his second marriage to Patricia, he added her children to hisfamily.

In 1959, Walt began work in the aerospace industry. After working for others for twenty years,he took a chance with his own business and became successful. Husak had various corporateinterests in the aerospace industry. He is listed as president of W & T Holdings, Inc. (1984); Hk Aerospace, Inc. (1992); and W & M Property Management Corp. (2013).

Walt ran the Los Angeles Marathon six times and finished four times. While on a training run in1988, he passed a gas station and noticed a familiar car for sale, his old 1954 Cadillac. He bought it a second time and had it restored for pleasure trips in the California wine country.His drive to collect returned in 1980 when he acquired an 1804 large cent. This casual interest inlarge cents grew and he aspired to complete a set of 1793 to 1814 large cents by Sheldon variety.

This would be a total with edge varieties of 302 pieces. He succeeded in getting all but the S-15,S-79 and S-80. The known examples of those were held in strong hands and not available.He selected coins in choice condition or coins with great pedigrees or both. Those coins that arenot the finest known were often high in the condition census.

Walt was an excellent photographer who documented his own collection while it was raw. Healso documented raw coins for Alan Weinberg.

Husak was an active participant in Heritage, Goldberg and Stack's auctions as he was buildinghis collection. As a good client, they reserved bidder number 94 for him. He returned to Heritagewhen it was time to sell. With his collection stalled and real estate debts to pay, he consigned hiscollection to Heritage for auction on February 15, 2008. The collection was legitimatelydescribed as the finest collection of early large cents ever offered at public auction.

Heritage produced a colorful forty-page prospectus to create interest in the sale and that interestbrought in collectors from around the country. The auction catalog included 301 lots and 414pages with a full page devoted to each coin and color photo. Cataloguing was done by MarkBorckardt with additional commentary by Denis Loring. On the day of the sale the auction roomwas packed with 200 potential bidders. The Husak collection was dispersed among 168successful bidders.

At the sale, two large cents each sold for $632,500. They were lot 2014, a 1793 Liberty Cap cent, S-13, PCGS AU-50, and lot 2050, the finest known Starred Reverse cent, S-48 PCGS AU-50. Lot 2192 was the famous 1799 pedigreed back to an 1864 sale of coins of LorenzoAbbey. It sold for $161,000. The sale realized about $10.7 million which was about double thecost to assemble the collection.

After the sale he established the charitable Liberty Cap Foundation. He is listed as CEO withMartin A. Logies as agent. This presents a virtual museum for his collection.He was not done collecting but started over specializing in the cents of 1794. By 2022 his wasthe finest current collection and third behind Naftzger and Sheldon for historical collections. Notrades with the ANS were required for the formation of his collection.

Walt appeared in an episode of the TV show, Pawn Stars, that aired on January 29, 2018. He offered a 1792 half disme for sale identified as the Garrett specimen in a PCGS MS-65holder. The boys in the shop declined to pay the asking price. A different Garrett, Jeff Garrettwas also called in as an expert.

Viewers of the show may be aware that some of the scenarios are contrived and set up inadvance. Husak did not own the coin at the time. It had been in unsold inventory for SteveContursi and Rare Coin Wholesalers.

Following his death, tributes flowed in from friends he had made in the hobby. There was nounkind word to be said about him.

Chuck Heck writes:

Jim Neiswinter writes:

Al Boka writes:

"The Walt Husak early large cents, to be auctioned by Heritage inLong Beach next February, 2008 were on display for the first timein slabs. The coins were in first time, entirely clear, see-throughPCGS slabs and those cents with lettered or decorated rims were in3 'pronged' entirely clear slabs so their rims are visible and easilyreadable. I'm reliably informed that PCGS developed four slab diesbefore they came up with exactly what was needed for the Husak coppers.The result is superb. Hopefully, this type of slab will be adoptedfor all future encapsulations - with no more opaque white centers orunreadable rims. It's almost like holding the coin in your fingertips.With this type of slab, I can be persuaded.

"I also had the privilege of seeing part of the Husak cataloguemanuscript largely written by Mark Borckardt with some additionalassistance from Denis Loring. I was impressed. Aside from extensivepedigree information, most of the large cents are graded four ways- that is, the PCGS slab grade, the Del Bland grade, the Bill Noyesgrade and the EAC standard grade with both Mark and Denis concurringon this final grade. Four grades for each coin, a first in anynumismatic catalogue!

"If it sounds confusing having each cent graded four different ways,it is not. I found the EAC grade with the Borckardt-Loring concurrenceto be almost always 'right on' in my 'hobby oldtimer's' opinion.Additionally, there was a sale 'prospectus' catalogue with condensedlot descriptions and a magnificent blue cover picturing in colorsome of the cents (Walt Husak's own photography) available at theHeritage bourse alongside the coppers themselves. This certainlywhetted the appetite.

"I'm informed the lot by lot photography will be Heritage's own. Ifrankly prefer Walt's coin photography which is more vivid but takenat a very slight angle with a shadow at the bottom of each earlycopper. The coins look more 'real' in my opinion with the lustreand surfaces more alive.

"Walt is thinking of a novel proposal: Heritage photographs lot bylot - straight on images, and Walt's photography in full page platesof dozens of pennies at one time - two different full color viewsof the each large cent in the catalogue. Hopefully, this may fly.

To watch the episode, see:
Pawn Stars: Half Disme Coin and Libertas Americana Medal (Season 15) | History(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTKbcAKbQtU&t=11s)

Walter Husak Talks About the Large Cents Market and Sheldon 37. VIDEO: 2:27(https://coinweek.com/opinion/market-reports/walter-husak-talks-about-the-large-cents-market-and-sheldon-37-video-227/)
https://coinweek.com/us-coins/the-walter-j-husak-collection-of-large-cents-1793-1814/(https://coinweek.com/us-coins/the-walter-j-husak-collection-of-large-cents-1793-1814/)

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
ALAN V. WEINBERG'S 2007 MILWAUKEE ANA CONVENTION REVIEW(https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n33a06.html)
WALTER HUSAK LARGE CENT COLLECTION TO BE SOLD BY HERITAGE(https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n23a23.html)
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS WALTER HUSAK CENT COLLECTION(https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n50a23.html)
AUCTIONS IN A WORLD OF CORONAVIRUS(https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n12a14.html)